last minute thoughts before missing the bus...

One more semester I endure at the Lancaster state school where Marauders dwell, with a class schedule, one 3-hour literature class a week, allowing the freedom to work an actual job, allegedly, and engage in more creative pursuits.

Originally taking two classes, dropping one when moments of stress created dire visions that foreshadowed the rest of the semester, and all I could think, "T-S (not Eliot) I'm not engaging with stress, I'm done with it." A higher level sociology class I no longer needed when my real passion guided me through the rest of my degree plan, and that is the simple art of writing, long my strength, my art, and my aspiration to be a vehicle I can use to make my mark, no pun intended, on the world.

Ever questioning the desire to continue on with my degree plan, my education will go on despite how I engage myself with institutes of higher learning.

Nostalgia Critic

Once upon a time, not so long ago, you had to be a well known and good looking personality to have your own show, or segment of a show that showed your own critique of something. Those days are over, thanks to inexpensive video camera, some editing software, and a domain space with a lot of bandwidth. But you still need one thing: talent. And while criticism of recent publications, productions etc. still goes strong, how about critique of old movies and shows from the days of kiddom? Welcome to, http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com, one popular segment of his website, especially if the culture of the '90s is a fond memory for you, is his section, The Nostalgia Critic, where some guy called Doug offers his critique on older movies, TV-shows and even commercials.
Using methods of criticism no professional critic could ever use such as dropping the smart weapon version of f-bombs and yelling incessantly about this or that.
Offering no loyalty to any particular network or enterprise, he trashes, or commends them all at some point. Disney, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros. Works for me! I had mercifully forgotten how bad some of these shows really were, after I stopped watching most of them 10-years ago or so.

what's not wrong with coal?

Papers and papers show why using coal is unsustainable. Worse than nuclear power, natural gas even petroleum, the mining and burning of coal is an environmental disaster blah, blah, it's evil, the rock of the devil, blah blah.
Such points are one thing in a paper, they are something else in reality. Let's look at the recent environmental disaster courtesy of that enemy of the human race in Tennessee, where over 50-million tons of coal fly ash spilled into Tennessean waterways, creating an ecological nightmare for not just the flora and fauna of this area, but also the people that live here. For many years, their water will still be contaminated, their land values will decline, and life will never be the same.

How could this happen? Coal plants are put aside waterways to use water to create steam, spin turbines etc. And at each of these coal plants, huge ash piles from burning this evil substance are created. The one in Tennessee is 40-acres in size. Now, we all should ask, what is being done to keep this from happening else where? I live in Pennsylvania, coal has been part of the state's economy since the 18th century. There are several mines and thus many coal fired power plants, with their accompanying coal slurry ponds. Only when the world stops burning coal, as in not burning it any way shape or form, will these slurry ponds no longer be an environmental threat. That day cannot come soon enough.

In time, sooner rather than later, using coal must stop, it is unsustainable, not just because it is a foul, evil substance that asks so much more of us, our health, our livelihoods, our environment, than it gives us, "cheap" electricity, material for cinder blocks, and some industrial by products, one day we will run out. Yes, run out. And oh yes it might be over 100-years from now, well 100-years from now people will still want electricity, but they will still need clean air, soil and water. New technology to make "clean coal" is not the key, it is a PR-ploy by the coal industry well supported by their lobbyists on K-street.

Here's hoping under the new atmosphere of change in the U.S. and abroad, no longer will we burn coal. The cleanest coal is that which remains in the Earth, where it belongs, buried and dead like the dinosaurs and ancient plant matter it was created from.

This is not a treehugger, or lefty issue, this is a global issue affecting everyone. No matter the color of your skin, language you speak, the religious symbols you worship (or do not) or you call yourself liberal, conservative, fascist or socialist, every human needs clean air, soil, and water. The three things the burning coal is a threat of, thus a threat to humanity.

For more:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/12/tennessee-coal-ash-slurry-spill-48-times-bigger-than-exxon-valdez-spill.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/aftermath-tva-coal-ash-spill-get-ticket-for-water-samples-video.php

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/press-center/releases2/greenpeace-calls-for-criminal

43-things personality quiz

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a Self-Knowing Extroverted Tree Hugger

simple pleasure in just reading

Despite majoring in English, and majoring quite well, I do not read all that often. Lately though, I have started to find reading more pleasurable then usual, a simple pleasure in life, letting written words tell worlds of stories to open and interested minds.

Tasked to discuss writing in the same vein as sex, both are acts to create,
the written word as life.

Conceiving creations of language
Begetting new written works
Ever hopeful of the impacts of your creations

Thoughts after Sicko

How many CEOs, and other high up employees, of big health insurance companies will be able to sustain their medical records being scrutinized by their own standards, just like they have people doing now? who knows, how do we find out?
Simple, my challenge is to see these health records be scrutinized by independent auditors using their own standards. And if these companies which love to say over and over, that people like Michael Moore are completely exaggerating isolated incidents, than to prove Moore and others wrong, the results, but not the records, should be a matter of public record. Just say simply, whether by their own standards or not these big-wigs qualify for their own companies health coverage.

Wow, what a nice dream, time to wake up.

Green cars are awesome, if you can afford them...

The auto-centric way of life can be "green" too, we hear, once "green" cars are available. However, because of the crash on Wall St. and other factors, being able to afford one is getting even more difficult thanks to fewer banks willing to approve fewer loans on automobiles these days, especially to people with not spectacular credit. Interest rates are going up, even if your credit is good. http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/09/how-wall-street.html